Taumeasina Island Resort and Moata’a strengthen rugby links

By joy 16 August 2017, 12:00AM

Last week, the Moata’a Rugby Club received a tremendous boost through the donation of uniforms courtesy of Taumeasina Island Resort.

The Resort’s General Manager, Nathan Bucknall, presented $11,000 worth of jerseys and rugby gear to Moata’a Paramount Chief, Asi Semisi Blakelock.

Asi told the Samoa Observer the donation is only part of the Resort’s and Moata’a village ongoing partnership, which started years ago.

 “When Lamana was building the Taumeasina Island Resort, I sought their assistance in terms of jerseys and equipment for our rugby team and this is the end result,” said Asi. 

“Nathan came in and purchased the jerseys for the team and we hope this will boost the morale of the boys to play their hearts out for Moata’a.” 

Moata’a has a proud rugby history.  Asi said he hopes the equipment will help their rugby team return to the glory days of when they dominated the Apia Rugby Union competition.

“That is what we are trying to achieve here,” he said.

“They have old jerseys but the new set of jerseys we have, this should make them realise they are the pride of Moata’a and they should play their hearts out for their beloved village.”

Mr. Bucknall said the Resort was delighted to be able to help the team.

 “This is to strengthen our relationship with the village,” he said. 

“We also have a lot of players from the rugby club working here at Taumeasina and this is to indicate to the village that they want Moata’a to be a part of the Resort.... after all, Taumeasina is in Moata’a.

 “We get a lot of solicitation letters and I have to choose wisely who we invest our money and time on. 

“We need to choose the people and the relationships that we want to align ourselves with, and because we’re part of the village, it makes natural sense to purchase the jerseys, which cost A$6,000.”

By joy 16 August 2017, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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